Video: Mentorship Offers Career Experience

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Dustin Dunaway is a junior at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sciences, and he’s gaining experience before entering the workforce…as a junior in high school.

Dustin is like most high schoolers, someone with plenty of interests but wasn’t exactly sure what his calling was

Thanks to a partnership between MSMS and Pryor & Morrow Architecture and Engineering, Dunaway spent the past semester side by side with architects.

“I’ve always been fascinated by architecture but never really sure what I wanted to do…”, said Dunaway, “When I had the opportunity to mentorship I said, ‘of course, I’m going to go for the architecture firm’, and now I do want to be an architect.

“I’m going to major in Civil Engineering and get a Master’s in Architecture.”

Mentorship Coordinator Dr. Kayla Hester said opportunities like Dustin’s is the purpose of the program.

“It’s a great opportunity for our students to get hands-on experience in a career field they’re interested in. It kind of lets them get a feel for it its something they want to pursue in the future.”

Principal Architect Michael Taylor said, “the students, they bring a fresh perspective to our office. We learn them, and hopefully they learn from our thirty plus years of design experience.”

Hester said about fifteen to twenty students are in the program and are entered into many different career fields.